The First Worldline
by Caasi
Summary: In 1994, John's seventh year at Hogwarts is going relatively well until his Winter Break. Attacked at his own home by an old wizard of evil, he receives from his newly awaken lost father a stone capable of manipulating time in a much more dangerous way than a time turner.
1. Chapter 1

Had this idea last night and had time.

* * *

It was December 1994 the last time I saw my father alive. It also felt it had been the first.

I had come home during Winter Break, and had spent the few days I had away from Hogwarts, and the mess that was the Triwizard Championship, close to our fireplace. Like always, my father snorted under a thick blanket in his armchair besides me as I speeded through another muggle book on sciences. Tim, our house elf, would pop in and out during the course of the day to assist my father, stuck in an eternal slumber thanks to a curse from many years ago.

He was alive, we were sure of it. We could feel it. Pay attention, and all one would see was an old man, bald and thick beard, resting in the deep of a good sleep. Turn your eyes away, and you could feel his gaze at the back of your head.

He was here, present somehow. With no means of communication, he was condemned until the end of his days to live life with an awaken soul inside an asleep body.

I still valued his company, and I was sure he also valued mine. Despite the curse between us, there was a bond there between father and son that I knew I wasn't imagining. Magic, one might say, that's how I knew it existed.

Tim always said my family was good with magic too, though he had never been very expressive about the subject even when pressed. But I didn't need Tim to prove to me his belief. I believe it already. I had lost my mother a decade ago, and now my father was well on his way, all due to the selfish interest of a few individuals, who had put my family time and time again through danger.

That is, believe it or not, a pureblood family had decided to move in metropolitan London, in a small apartment in Tottenham. Well, I decided to do so. My father disapproved immensely from his armchair, I was sure, but he had made peace with it by now. Even though he was one of the most open-minded purebloods around, he still preferred to keep his distance. Not out of prejudice, please understand, but out of caution.

'Do not tickle the sleeping Dragon, John' father would tell me. Quite the Hogwarts alumni, wasn't he? The point is, he was afraid of muggles, of what they would, and could do if they knew about wizards. My parents had been part of those who keep an eye on the situation. They make sure there are no derailments around the Status of Secrecy. People like him have to disappear too, lest they become targets for malicious groups.

Which is precisely what had happened years ago.

It's depressive to talk about it, I'm sure you understand why. Furthermore, the fun begins in 1994, so let me get back there.

It was my last night home before returning to Hogwarts, and therefore, my last hours before returning to my troublesome challenge that was winning the Triwizard Championship.

That's right, did I lose you there? I _am _the Hogwarts Champion, and the only.

_Sigh_

I guess losing you here would be unavoidable. How do I put it? Right, let me use some less known piece of pop culture, which is actually true to everyone's disbelief.

Welcome to Worldline Zeta, divergence number -1/12, the first Worldline. And I mean, the _actual_ first. This is how everything began.


	2. Chapter 2

Tim popped in for what had to be the 11th time in an hour to clean my father's chin from his drool. I may have been living with a house elf for years, but I had never gotten quite used to the popping sound—

_POP_

I jerked on my armchair, closing my book as I look at my father the Tim.

"Tim, just… prop his head back. He is able to swallow it, he just can't close his lips."

But Tim raised a hand in a negative gesture, lowering his head, "I do not touch master, master John! I do not touch master."

I sighed, "Fine." I placed my book on the small side table besides me and got myself out of the cozy sheets. A bit of cold in my legs immediately propped up my hairs in the back of my head. Funny how it was colder here than I expected.

And with each step I took towards my father, the colder it got. Exponentially. Put that together with the emergence of depressive thoughts, and we had a textbook case—

"Dementors!" Tim yelled besides me. I reached for my wand and accioed it my hand, but as soon as I grab it, the window exploded.

The shockwave pushed me, my father, and most of our furniture back, and with it, came tons of smoke. I could not see as I crashed on the other wall, and felt what must be my armchair landing over one of my legs, crushing it immediately.

I was coughing on the ground afterwards, the pain barely leaving me insane as I mustered whatever strength I had left. Just as I had managed to life my chin and tried to get a look around, a number of snaked jumped out of the smoke. Some bit parts of my legs and torso, but most just did their best to immobilize. Short seconds after they grew colder and harder, and before my eyes, as I struggled to get out of their grip, they became stone. They were also attached to the floor somehow, which further complicated things.

Spells such as the bombarda and diffindo immediately came to mind, but both were dangerous at such an enclosure. I would end up cutting one of my hands off. I tried to struggle once more, the pain growing dimmer as I realized something was shutting down my senses. My sense of touch was also going away, and my vision had become a bit blurred, but I could still see.

Suddenly the smoke was sucked to the middle of what was once our living room, and it disappeared. An old man showed up, one you saw in history books only, given as dead. He was also notorious enough you had a hard time convincing yourself he was really before you.

It couldn't be.

The wizard lifted my father and gave arms to the walls. They extended themselves and took his body, hugging it high almost as if he was being crucified before solidifying themselves. The wizard then lifted his wand, pointing it right at my father's chest.

I could feel the intent to use powerful magic, it was there, and something terrible was about to happen.

"Please leave him be!" I yelled, tried to scream, but my voice were closer to a whimper for my ears. Still, the wizard stopped momentarily, which was just the right motivation for me to continue, "He is cursed, unable to talk, unable to properly live. He is not the man you once knew!" I said what I hoped to be true. Was this man in possession of a grudge? Or perhaps something else?

It mattered not. My father was not what he once had been, and in his state, he was unable to provide anything any human could, much less what a wizard could. I fought my dimming senses, choosing to also not believe what my eyes had seen. Whoever this man was, he was an enemy no doubt, and I would fight tooth and nail. But if he was truly who he had seemed to be, then I would fight even more fiercely.

"How entertaining," he said, his voice hoarse with age. I struggled against the stone that had me its prisoner, but to no avail. I tried calling my wand again, but had no luck there either. Had it been broken? This would make things harder, but I couldn't panic. If I panic, I was dead. If I lost control over my body more than I already had, it was over. My father was over, I was over.

I couldn't let that happen. Wouldn't mom have died in vain if I died today? All f my parents effort to protect the family, I would be throwing all of that away wouldn't I?

Well, fuck me. Time to struggle then. I was good at that.

"Enough," he said, and he launched a spell that froze me even further. Pretificus totalus? What a fucking sissy. Ow, my head, why was it ringing now? Still, the wizard continued his monologue, "Your father will awake at any time now. A natural jing can always overcome curses, and his will certainly awake him…"

My father's body jerked, and I heard his voice speak for the first time in a decade.

"Wow, Gellert, you look like shit."

I then heard the sound of bone crushing bone. Grindelwald had just punched my father.

"I see your exile hasn't taught you to hold your tongue. Still so insolent to your betters," Grindelwald growled as my father coughed and spit a tooth or two.

"Betters? You've come to me Grindelwald, after 11 years," I did my best to keep my eyes open as my head kept ringing. It wasn't easy though, the light increasing the pain through my retina. I did manage to see my father's face though, and saw him making an expression that had been alien for all these years. He was smiling. Satisfied by something beyond this room. A joke only he could take enjoyment out of.

"For 11 years you couldn't do what I did. You couldn't achieve what I managed! You need me, that's why you brought me back."

"Right," the dark wizard replied curtly, "And you will die as soon as I'm done."

My body was the pulled, the snakes detaching themselves from the floor and allowing me to float close to Grindelwald.

"His body has been injected with a variety of poisons, and I am able to control his senses of pain. I can make your son go through the worst torture any human has ever experienced, …and not let him die." Grindelwald finished dramatically.

My father stared at him for a few seconds before he let out of a chuckle.

"I can't believe it worked," he said with a devious smirk, "You didn't read the contract, Grindelwald. The stone is no more."

"W-what?" Grindelwald asked in disbelief.

"Here son, is how you defeat a goliath," he said, but kept his eyes on the wizard that had us captives, "With asterisks. No one reads the terms and conditions."

"There were no terms! The contract demands you to give me the Time Stone! NOW!" He bellowed.

"Tim!" my father yelled, and suddenly, the room turned dark despite the huge hole in the wall that let the whole world see our living room.

There was another explosion at the back of the room, and then I was rolling down a hill. I felt my body rolling down over grass, but where could I be? I was in London! What is happening?! I finally came to a stop, and with a tired sigh, I opened my eyes, realizing I had closed them in the first place.

We were on the countryside, and my leg wasn't broken. I wasn't immobilized by stone snakes either, and besides me I found my father, standing and looking more alive than even my earliest memories.

I stood up in a hurry, "What have you done?"

He seemed shocked at first, but slowly a smile crept up in his lips. He looked sideways, "Your mother once asked me the same thing," he chuckled, "Same day I proposed too."

"Father, there was—in our living room—the wizard—dark wizard-" I mumbled the words, unable to decide where to start when my father simply lifted a hand and I stopped.

"Yeah, I know." He said solemnly, "We don't have a lot of time. You have to turn things back now, John."

I frowned, "Turn things back?"

"Yeah, turn things back. As many hours as you can."

I shook my head, "I am not following."

"You heard Grindelwald.," he gestured behind him even though we were lost in the farmlands. "He is after the Time Stone. But there is no Time Stone anymore. Still, its essence can't be erased, just like it cannot be created. It just changes its format to whatever is more… convenient."

"Right," I said, following his line of though, as well as believing at face value everything I had experienced in the last 10 minutes. "So, is it in a turn timer? The one in your drawer?"

"No, John," he grimaced, "It's in you. You're the Time Stone now. You can turn back time now. Just close your eyes, believe in it, will it, and push. You won't be able to go further than a few hours. The human body is fragile like that, so don't force it either."

I nodded, "I have no fucking idea what's going on."

"Don't curse," his father chided him, "Your mother wouldn't like it. Now, I'm going to get us back. I will be dead, you understand?"

"Wait!" I yelled suddenly, legs starting to shake from the thought, "Get us back? Why? And you are dead? You will die? And you wanna go back?

"It's the only way. It's part of the contract. What you now have to do, is go back, and turn time. Once you are awake, you must kill me."

I lifted a hand to my forehead, "What the fuck are you asking me, after all this time—"

"Tim will understand. He knows what's coming. Once the ordeal is done, send him to meet Jonathan Verry. He is a wizard and a professor at ZTH Zurich. He can help you towards the next phase of the plan."

"What?"

"And don't tell anyone you are the stone," my father continued undeterred. "Make everyone think you are simply the one who has it, and let them guess on what format it currently is. Not even Dumbldore."

"Isn't Dumbledore the one who defeated Grindelwald? Isn't he the person to contact?"

His father hesitated, "We aren't sure where his loyalties lie. Don't risk it. Also, wait for Verry to come to you. He will probably do so at a task from the Triwizard Championship, his father then snapped his fingers. "By the way, congrats in making it in."

"The Championship!? Why the fuck would I care about that?"

"Because no one else knows about you and me. That you are my son. Bank on that."

"Grindelwald has seen me!"

"So long he doesn't kill me, but you, he won't be able to reveal anything to the few followers he has," my father than took a step closer and kneeled, grabbing both my hands with both of his. "Promise you will do it. Promise you will kill me."

I felt tears streaming down my cheeks. "I was waiting all this time—I didn't know I had hopes, but turns out I had—" he then pulled me closer and hugged me. 11 years since he had done so, and it had been just as good as I imagined it.

"Get ready," he said suddenly.

The asshole didn't even let me say goodbye.

Almost as if we had apparated, I found myself once again in our destroyed living room. The pain and drugs and poison all came rushing once more, and I felt like giving in to unconsciousness if not for the burning memory of my father giving me a mission.

My father's last words and wishes.

I was going to accomplish them.

Closing my eyes, I imagined a clock. I grabbed one of its pointers and took a deep breath. I pulled it, and with it, my world went dark once more.


End file.
